Rants on Cycling and on Life:
Photos of people and bicycles that pass in front of my camera

11.23.2006

one way to return a jersey that did not fit...

it is latei am tiredfinally the headache from that bottle of red wine is gonedid not feel like I could go to sleep with that pounding and throbbingthe pounding and throbbing has stoppednow I am ready to start this blog entry when I should be going to sleep...

one way to return a wool cycling jersey that did not fitwhich gets gwadzilla a tour of the dirt rag facilititiestoday I woke to a vacation-esque agendaan agenda that is not far off from last year's wednesday before thanksgiving agenda

this morning after I finally rolled out of bed I drank my morning coffeewith the coffee ingested I rallied the boys to finish getting dressedtrying to accelerate their motion by dangling the Children's Museum in front of themit helped... sort ofyoung boys get easily distracted

before our trip downtown we had a trip to "the mall"usually when I say the mall I am referring to a trip past the white house to the monuments and museumsbut in this case my notion of the mall is that standard american meaning of the mall

we went to the mall to pick up some family posed portraitsI played with the boys while the women picked the final printsthese pictures do not really appeal to my tastes... but I am a team player and smile along with the eventthe boys rode the mini-christmas trainthen climbed on coin operated games without the use of coinsthe buck seventy five for the two minute mini- train ride was enoughespecially since it only lasted for 20 secondsthey each rode for forty seconds... there was a four tickets for five bucks dealI am not going to do the math on the per ride cost

finally the ladies came out of the family portrait studiesmy boys got mobbed by their cousinswhich delayed our departure for downtown for another thirty minutes as the kids had to playeven if the kids were all going to the same downtown destinationthey were concerned with playing in "the now"

finally we made it downtownthe children's museum is fantasticwe spent most of the morning in the crafts section making paper, painting stuff, and making silk screensthen after a bag lunch we attacked the rest of the building

once the kids were soaked from the water exhibit we headed for home

before heading out the door I picked up the white pages and tracked down dirt ragwell... the white pages left me empty so I used the magic of the Internet and the assistance of the staffthen called the Dirt Rag offices to confirm that they could handle an inperson returnandthat there would be someone in the offices

the drive was shortthere drive was longer than it should have been due to rush hour clustering on the roads that were under serious repairit was an interesting driveas I had thought that the Dirt Rag offices were in a more urban stretch of townthere was some apprehension and fear that I was heading to their mailing address and not the office address as my approach was not well planned and lacked solid confirmation

grant was asleepdean was complainingand well... the wife was putting up with the "errand"dean wanted nothing to do with my "errand"dean wanted to be heading to his cousin's house

eventually the addresses counted up from the 900 block to the 3400 blockwhat I had thought would be an urban office turned out to be what looked like a house that may house a mess of college studentsor maybe a bunch of hippiesit was not just the massive peace signthe house has a "comfortable" vibe

feeling a tad awkward I left the family in the car when I knocked on the doorthrough the window I could see some computer monitors which put me at ease that I was in fact at a residence that was the Dirt Rag office

without any shock the door was opened and I was welcomed in by Brad

I told brad my situation with my undersized jerseyimmediately brad took actionbrad may have been briefed on my phone call

to my pleasure the exchange went without hitchin facthad I returned the jersey via mail I would have only gone from XL to double Xwhile the triple X was really what I needed

with the correct shirt in hand the tour continued

there were all sorts of bikes and a make shift bike shopthere were all sorts of cool rigsbikes that had been reviewed in dirt ragbikes that I had seen reviewed in dirt rag

before we left the basement for the main floor my older son joined the tourbrad had no issue in the rapidly growing tour group

on the back patio there was an official advertising meetingso I did not get to meet the big wigs or the chairmen of the boardbut... I got to walk through the trenches and shake hands with a few of the folks that make things happen

it was all really coolnot just because of the wool jersey exchange or the handful of swagbut because I got a window into the world that is dirt rag

the airstream for the Dirt Rag World Tour was in the lotand the trails out the back were within view as well

once back in the car there was a short drive back to the inlawsthe traffic did not make it easierbut everyone was pretty pleasant keeping their complaints to themselvesthe boys were entertained with a handful of stickers eachwhile the wife was fine with me doing something purly for me on this trip

it was good chatting with bradputting a face to the name and a voice to the wordswe caught up and learned that we have some mutual friends and talked about various races that we had both attended

thanks bradthanks for the tour, the return, and the swagnext time be readynext time I am showing up with a bike

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